All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 29. Proverbs
29. I'd like to look at one verse,
verse two. Proverbs 29, two. When the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule,
people mourn. Now, as we've often considered,
the Proverbs are truths that should be heard, considered,
obeyed by all men because they are from heaven. Proverbs, this
is the Word of God. And there's sound truth that
is set forth in the Proverbs that is beneficial to all who
will hear. Naturally and spiritually speaking,
there's knowledge and there's wisdom that is laid forth. Knowledge. Knowledge can be gotten
by reading, repeating, but wisdom is given
from God. Naturally speaking, now at the
top of my Bible, in many of the, over the Proverbs up at the top,
it says moral virtues and their contrary vices. Now that, you
know, moral virtues contrary vices are not in themselves,
naturally speaking, the setting forth of the wisdom of God. These
Proverbs remember when the disciples asked the Lord, why do you preach
in parables, Proverbs? Why do you preach like that?
He said, because it's given unto you. to know, to understand the
mysteries of God. Unto them it's not given. You
can read these Proverbs and there is a natural understanding. Let me see if I can make good
on this. When the righteous are in authority, people rejoice. But when the
wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. That truth that we just read
is right in all aspects of life, and it's understood. You understand
that, naturally speaking. But to see the gospel in that
passage, that's what we're looking for. Let me show you how you
can naturally understand this. Take the family. When the righteous
are in authority, who has God set over the family? Which person? The man, the husband. Okay? When the righteous is in
authority. Now, naturally speaking, if there's
a an honorable man. I'm not even going to talk about
if the man's a believer. Here's how you can naturally
understand something. You take a man, he's honorable. He's hardworking. He's found
to be carefully watching over his wife, his children. Humanly speaking, he's unselfish. He's not trying to do anything
other than the best, trying to raise his kids to be upstanding
citizens, and he's truthful, and he's respectful to others.
That's the right thing. That's the right thing. And where
you find that, as a general rule, you're gonna find some harmony
and some peace in that family when the righteous are in authority. Now, I'm just talking about just
the natural Man, he's just a natural man, but he's an honorable man.
I mean, you know people, they're just, he's a good fella. I like
him, he does the right thing. But you know, you find a man
that's got an attitude, nothing more than a spirit of selfishness
and self-centeredness, and he's never satisfied, and he's always
looking for a fight, and nothing's ever right, and the house is
never clean, And the kids are never respectful enough to him
that he deserves better than this, and he's just bickering
in constant state of upheaval. Nobody's content like that. It's
just a mess. And the people mourned. They
mourned. About the government. Boy, there's
a, you take a decent, patriotic, honorable person in Washington,
authority, there's a true concern for the country, the well-being
of the people. And the laws are being passed
that are being passed that's got some profit to the masses,
and there's a true desire to do the right thing, and there's
settleness. You think, is there anybody like
that in government? I don't know. There's a desire to do the right
thing. And the people are satisfied. They're good. Buddy, where you
find crooked politicians and that desire for power and money's
the issue, the people mourn. Don't ask me right now what my
attitude is toward anything right now. because I'm disappointed. That's
the way we all are. But while there's honor, can
be honor and responsibility found in families and in government,
and there can be a sense, the heart of this passage comes down
to this. Show me the glory of God. in this passage. Show me where
Christ is honored and how the Lord has blessed it. Now, when
the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when
the wicked bear through, the people mourn. There are, by the grace of God,
scattered throughout this world, places where the Lord. I'm not talking about just mere
religion now. I'm talking about where God has
raised up faithful, faithful men. A pastor. The Lord said, I'll give you
pastors after my heart. They're gonna teach you, gonna
give you understanding. Where the Lord has been pleased to
raise up a pastor, a man that is righteous in Christ. Remember when Abraham, when the
Lord was gonna go and he was gonna send those two angels into
Sodom, and Abraham knew, he knew what was going on. And the Lord's
standing there talking to Abraham. The Lord said, I came to see
what I'd heard, speaking as a man here. was going on in Sodom. And here's Abraham, he's thinking
about Lot. And he said, would you destroy
the righteous with the wicked? Righteous. Lot was a just man,
just Lot. He was righteous before God.
Vexed every day. But there was a man there that
knew God. When the righteous are in authority,
when God has raised up a man, a pastor, that'll set forth the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, a man that's been everlastingly
loved of God, chosen Christ, and redeemed by the blood of
Christ, called and qualified and taught by God's Spirit. One
who has been justified when the righteous, I'm making this point
because of the word that's used, when the righteous are in authority. One that knows himself not to
be righteous in himself, because he knows it all of his own personal
righteousness. Filthy rags, but one who has
been through the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. One that's
been given faith to believe and one that's been justified before
God by the application of Christ's blood. When the righteous are
in authority, when they increase, when they're multiplied, called
by the righteous judge himself. The people rejoice. There's truly
rejoicing there because of what they hear. Faith cometh by hearing. They rejoice according to 1 Thessalonians
5.16 in agreement. They rejoice evermore. There's
joy in the Holy Ghost. And joy has arisen in their heart
because of the God-blessed knowledge that has been given them. And
it's been blessed to their heart and God's given them wisdom to
see that they've been pardoned by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ and justified by His imputed righteousness. And they rejoice
that they're being kept by the power of God through faith. unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. They rejoice when the righteous
are in authority. The people rejoice. I was thinking
about this, those disciples that came back and they were telling
the Lord how even the devils were in subjection to him. The
Lord says, don't rejoice in that the devils are in subjection
to you. I beheld Satan fall. He said,
you rejoice because your names are written in heaven. God's
people hear the truth of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they rejoice in Christ Jesus. They have no confidence
in the flesh. They worship God in the spirit.
They make their boast in the Lord on account of Him, in Him
for His mercy. But on the other hand, The scripture
declares, but where the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. I looked that word wicked up.
We see that a lot in scripture. Where the wicked beareth rule. Here's what it means. Criminal. Guilty one. One guilty of crime. Hostile to God. guilty of sin
against God or man. Those places where men are standing
in pulpits, false prophets, who has raised themselves up. I want
you to hold your place and turn to Jeremiah 23. I say this often, how much is brought up about
false prophets. Number one, the scripture bears
much about it. The Lord himself warned of it. Listen to what the Spirit of
God moved upon Jeremiah to write. Jeremiah 23, verse 14 to 24,
or 22, I'm sorry. The Lord's speaking through Jeremiah.
I've seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing.
The word horrible there in my Bible is interpreted in the margin
Filthiness, I've seen filthiness. They commit adultery and walk
in lies. They strengthen also the hands
of evildoers that none doth return from his wickedness. They are
all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as
Gomorrah. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
of hosts concerning the prophets, Behold, I will feed them with
wormwood and make them drink the water of Gaul, for from the
prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of
the prophets that prophesy on you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their
own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still
unto them that despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have
peace. And they say unto everyone that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall
come unto you. For who has stood in the counsel
of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath
marked his word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord
is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously
upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not
return until we have executed, until he hath performed the thoughts
of his heart. In the latter days, you shall
consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets. Yet they ran. I have not spoken
to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel
and caused my people to hear my words, then they should have
turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doings."
Why do we say so much concerning the filthiness, the vaneness,
these words that the Lord was using? The profanity. Why do we say so much against
it? I'll tell you why. I'll remind us all. We're dying
creatures. And we're going to stand before
God. And there's going to be an account
given. The books are going to be opened.
And the book and the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It's the only message. The only
message. The only message. that the Spirit
of God is going to bless to the salvation of God's elect. Is
a man saved? Can a man or woman be saved under
a false gospel? Now listen, I'm going to try
to explain this very carefully so you understand. No. No. The gospel is the declaration
of the finished work of Christ, the finished work. And it encompasses
the whole scope of what we try to preach here every Sunday,
every Wednesday. God so loved the world. The word world there, look it
up. It means the human race. God loved the human race. And
if God left the human race to itself, God who is just is going
to put the human race, all of us, in hell because we deserve
it, because we've rebelled against God. God Almighty loved the order
of man. He loved the world. The world,
you look it up, it can mean dirt, it can mean all the trees, it
can mean that, It can mean the whole human race, but in that
passage, it's the order of man, the human race. You say, well,
doesn't God love the human, the whole human race? No. Does he
pray for the whole human race? No. How do you know? Because
he said in John 17, nine, I pray not for the world, pray not for
everybody. I pray for those that you've
given me out of the world. Now you listen to me. God Almighty's
got a people. He's got an elect. Here's the
declaration of the finished work of Christ. God's got a people
that He's chosen in Christ. Ephesians 1, 4. The Spirit of
God moved on the Apostle Paul to say in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 verses 13-14, but we're bound to give thanks to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief for the truth, and has called you by our gospel. He called you by the gospel.
Does God save people under the sound of the gospel? Yes. Yes. Whosoever shall call upon the
Lord shall be saved. How are they going to call in
Him in whom they've not heard? This is Romans 10. How are they
going to hear without a preacher? How are they going to preach
unless they be sent? When the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice. God's given me hope. He's given
me hope. Not in myself, but in Christ,
who loved me, saved me. But when the wicked beareth root,
The people mourn. How do I know when one is standing
in a pulpit and not telling the truth? How do I know? Isaiah 2.20, to the law and to
the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, this word, what word is that? Jonah 2.9, salvations
of the Lord. according to this word, for by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Not by works of righteousness
that we've done. What does that mean? Works of
righteousness that we've done. Well, I'm saved because I walked
down the aisle. I'm saved because I gave my heart to Jesus. I'm
saved because I was baptized. I'm saved because I've always
been at Katie Baptist Church and I came up under Scott Richardson.
And because I came up under Scott Richardson, I'm saved. Not by
works of righteousness, which we've done, but according to
his mercy. Mercy. He saved us. Not by works. If you're trusting in something
that you did back then, in a date, in a decision, in a choice. If
you're trusting in that, you're trusting in your works. What
do I do? Call upon the Lord. Today is
the day of salvation. Well, I thought I was. Thank
God you're still breathing right now. And he didn't leave you
to yourself. When the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice. When the wicked bear through,
the people mourn. Those that are left to themselves
are hearing that which will never give true peace. There's never
even true comfort. I can tell you this from experience
and then I'll wrap it up. Let me tell you how I can know
from experience. This is a personal word of testimony. I grew up in false religion. I was told, I was lied to, that
my salvation was based on my decision. I cannot tell you how
many times after I made that so-called decision that I wonder,
I wonder, Kevin, was I really, was I really saved? Did I really
mean it? Was I really, really repentant? Was I? I was nine years old when I walked
down the first time. And I tell you how I know that
I was mourning. It says right here, when the
wicked bear through, the people mourn. I can tell you how I was
mourning, because I always felt guilty being, I'd have to go
down and rededicate. There was something inside. I
was, I just, everything about it was me. I was mourning because
I couldn't get any relief. When the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice. They rejoice in Christ. When
the wicked, they mourn. They mourn now because there's
no peace. And I'll tell you this, unless
the Lord does something for them, they're going to stand before
God and they're going to mourn in that day. Because they're gonna stand,
the Lord said, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many
are gonna say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, prophesied in your name. We cast
out devils in your name. We've done many marvelous works
in your name. And I shall say unto them, I never knew you. Depart from
me. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. They will mourn
that day. Oh, I pray God have mercy upon
us. Save us, Lord. Save us by your
grace. Save us. Show mercy upon this
congregation for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.